i have on and off watched up to about ep 35. here's what i gotta say. might be spoilers.
i've held an interest in the show for the longest time given the contributions that shotaro ishinomori have made to japanese media as a whole- the idea of an international superhero team (esp in the 60s!) combined with raygun sci-fi, as well as the general anti-war leftist tone made me feel like the show should be reasonably up my alley. but does it hold up for a new viewer in 2024? well...
it's a 7 at best doe
let's face it. when the show hits, it swings out of
...
the park. the first half of the series is pretty tightly told, with a general overarching story about needing to beat black ghost driving the first 18 episodes. all throughout, the driving goal helps thread together some otherwise quite distinct character stories, which gives us the best of both worlds, really- we get to learn more about each character and their individual struggles pre-black ghost, which, when there's nine main characters, is a necessity, believe it or not. there are a few stinkers here and there, with that one episode before joe fights scar or the one with the dinosaurs coming to mind, but for the most part the good outweighs the bad. the time spent exploring the characters in this half of the story were very well spent, the tone being generally consistent, grounded and in some ways, heartfelt. in particular, i think reintegrating the vietnam arc as pyunma’s backstory was a very clever move, helping set apart and modernise the work from prior adaptations. i can confidently say i genuinely enjoy the vast majority of the first half of the anime. theres a short lull, and then we return to the mythos arc. [write more later, dont feel like covering this rn. i liked it doe]
the second half of the show post recap ep is more than a little shakier. as i understand it, more of these episodes are based off works from post the initial manga conclusion (that'd be vol 10 of the tokyopop translations). the works in this half just tend to be... well, sometimes, they're great! but there are many times where i was watching and. y'know. there's aliens now. fine. a supercomputer tried to bang francoise. okay. now joe's time traveling and a bright blue dog just telepathically beamed the entirety of earth's history into g. junior's head. i don't fucking care anymore man.
i get that part of cyborg 009 has always been heavily tied to shotaro ishinomoris fascination with esoterica and the occult, after all, ishinomori only decided 001s powers would be psychokinesis-related only because he knew the russian government was experimenting with psychic powers (look up nina kulagina, i'm not kidding on that)... take it from someone into that sort of stuff, one doesn't pick up on that unless they have an active interest in it. but, 009 becoming the sounding board for this interest, as well as being an episodic series as a whole, is to its own detriment precisely because ishinomori clearly wanted to tell more dramatic stories than he could with the limitations he had. since these stories are episodic, they have to be ended off cleanly, and ishinomori more often than not has a few stock endings which get tiring after a while. with few exceptions, either black ghost did it, the character of the week dies tragically (cause war is bad!) or its just straight up magic that won't ever be explained or touched upon again. this last one opens up a whole other can of worms- because characters don't really look back and reflect on these events past the episode itself... or even giving a reaction of "that was weird lol" like a normal human would, it creates a sense of passivity that pervades the show. characters have things happen to them constantly- rarely is the conflict STARTED by them, and most of the time, even that's just jet running off only to get whooped for the twentieth time.
the characters are wooden at best, and downright offensive at worst. there's no real contrasting views or friction between characters after the first few episodes, which feels strange especially for a group of nine people all from different places, and when there are, there aren't any long term consequences. even something basic like ONE character going "hey, why are you calling me by a number instead of my name? this feels dehumanising" vs say, one going like "whoa this is cool... it's like a spy movie... it's my codename :]" would go a long way in showing the difference in personality between characters, but then again, in comparison to the original manga, we should be lucky we have the amount of characterisation we do at all. then, there’s francoise’s role as the only woman basically boiling down to ‘mother figure’ or the secondhand embarrassment-inducing “YOUR PHONE LINGING” type soundtrack that plays whenever chang shows up. thank god they changed pyunma's appearance at the least.
while the anime pares down and collates the stories of 009 in such a way that the average watcher is to get a broad base of what ishinomori did with the series, it is precisely because of that that it replicates the same issues... and the severe dropoff of animation quality in the second half doesn't help matters. i regret to say this, especially since i’m coming up on the adaptation of the yomi arc which i heard is supposed to be decent, but i felt like after such a strong start, my time as a watcher was being wasted, and i don't know how many more ishinomori-isms (see: being preachy and tragically killing off every side character that could have potential future relevance) i can take. for now, i'm putting this series on indefinite hold.
Apr 1, 2024
Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier
(Anime)
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i have on and off watched up to about ep 35. here's what i gotta say. might be spoilers.
i've held an interest in the show for the longest time given the contributions that shotaro ishinomori have made to japanese media as a whole- the idea of an international superhero team (esp in the 60s!) combined with raygun sci-fi, as well as the general anti-war leftist tone made me feel like the show should be reasonably up my alley. but does it hold up for a new viewer in 2024? well... it's a 7 at best doe let's face it. when the show hits, it swings out of ... 
Jan 21, 2023
Trigun Stampede
(Anime)
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A crucial detail about Trigun Stampede is that it is not the Madhouse Trigun anime. In fact, the Madhouse Trigun anime hardly has anything to do with Trigun and it's pseudo-sequel/continuation Trigun Maximum, given it was made off maybe two volumes of content tops and has a vastly different tone and action style. If you wanna play the comparison game, then the two anime are practically apples and oranges, and it makes me want to tear my fucking hair out every time I see a complaint about how Stampede is 'NoT LikE WhAt i WatCHed oN ToONaMi'.
With that in mind, I very much enjoyed TriMax, ... 
Nov 26, 2022
Kaijuu 8-gou
(Manga)
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Kaiju No. 8 is mid. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s mid. Here’s a quick lowdown: Kafka Hibino is a loser in his 30s working cleanup for giant monster battles while wishing he could fulfil his childhood promise with his bestie, who is currently a high-ranking military official, to fight the kaiju together. Monkey’s paw curls, he gets the ability to turn into a kaiju. Not just any kaiju, mind you, but one of the most super duper OP kaiju according to the internal power ranking system of the universe. Hibino finally sees his opportunity to join the special forces to fight against the
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